Chapter Summaries

Shade learned the inn’s rules and explored the Witches’ records while healing Miss Coens from a relic’s petrifying influence. He decided to investigate the forbidden 1st Floor, and Miss Novare agreed to accompany him with matches.

• Lady Gerd explained that inn matches were the only safe source of light, and Miss Novare described the dangers of the shifting corridors and higher floors.
• Shade used Earth Power - Healing Aura to remove the relic’s influence from Miss Coens, restoring feeling to her lower body.
• Miss Novare told Shade about the inn’s dangerous rooms, including Hrimthurs in room 1022 and the unexplored 1st Floor, where her memories had been erased after she saw something.
• Shade asked to explore the 1st Floor, and Miss Novare agreed to guide him and lent him two matchboxes containing thirty-two matches.

Shade and Miss Novare left the safe room to explore the hotel, with Shade carrying Miss Coens’s Relic sword, Dawn’s First Light. As they descended, Novare revealed the hidden motives and personal dangers facing the other women, then admitted she hoped the hotel’s blood could help her advance and compete for her clan’s leadership.

• Shade borrowed Miss Coens’s Dawn’s First Light and ring after demonstrating swordsmanship that convinced her he knew Night Watchman’s style.
• Shade and Miss Novare set out from the tenth-floor room, using a bat to check that a stairwell was genuine before entering it.
• Novare explained the hotel’s stairwell rules and tried to charm Shade, but he pushed her away and warned her to speak plainly.
• Shade admitted that the God of Vampires had blessed him, and Novare said that made her wary but that she accepted either hope or despair from his arrival.
• Novare revealed that Lady Chesia Gerd’s mother had become a monster through flesh-modification experiments and that Miss Coens was pursuing the demon that murdered her family.
• Novare said she hoped to advance to Thirteenth Order by obtaining dangerous blood in the hotel and contending for her clan’s vacant elder position.

Shade and Miss Novare descended through the hotel, finding a corpse with notes and a mysterious key before reaching the 1st Floor. There they discovered a true god standing behind the counter, whose presence overwhelmed Miss Novare.

• Shade learned that Miss Novare and the other Bloodkin had become reluctant to leave the hotel, and he explained that he needed to find a way out of the House of False Men.
• Between the third and Fourth Floors, Shade and Miss Novare found a long-dead man carrying room notes and six Matches; Shade also found a rust-free Black Key and turned the corpse into a toy to carry.
• On the Second Floor, Shade cut down a blood-red streak that turned out to be a bat Miss Novare had summoned, though it was no longer under her control.
• Shade and Miss Novare continued down to the 1st Floor, where they saw a figure behind the counter and Shade recognized the presence of a god.
• Miss Novare felt overwhelming pressure from the figure and realized it was a true god, not a saint.

Shade met the Lord of Walls, received a blessing that protected any place he considered home, and learned that the god could help him escape Whisper Hills if he found one of his sacred relics. The god sent Shade and his companions to deal with the resident of Room 1978, while Shade also learned they needed to locate and reactivate the hotel’s elevator.

• Shade greeted the Lord of Walls and answered that home was a place that must never be abandoned.
• The Lord of Walls blessed Shade’s house key, protecting any place Shade recognized as home from decay, spatial rifts, evil entities, and divination.
• The god warned Shade that the door outside led to the dangerous Whisper Hills, then assigned him to find the escaped resident of Room 1978 and return or destroy it.
• Shade learned that a key from a dried corpse could guide him to the hotel’s locked elevator, which he needed to reactivate for faster travel.
• The Lord of Walls offered to strengthen Shade’s Homecoming Mystic Lock if Shade found one of his sacred relics, and granted Shade a new Query Corresponding Room trait for earning rewards by returning wandering residents to their rooms.

Shade and Miss Novare searched the third floor for the elevator, guided there by the key, while discussing Shade’s time-traveling and a werewolf witch Miss Novare had met. After a succubus attacked them, they severed a pale hand reaching from room 0397, but its unseen owner remained inside.

• Shade told Miss Novare that he had come from another time and had only fifty minutes to find what he needed in the inn.
• Miss Novare recalled meeting the werewolf witch Shibel Beast, who had visited room 2530 on the 25th Floor to confront a Moon Beast.
• Shade and Miss Novare reached the third floor, where the key began glowing and pointing them down the corridor.
• A succubus attacked from the darkness, but Shade wounded it with Dawn's First Light while Miss Novare pursued it with bats.
• A long pale arm reached from room 0397, and Shade and Miss Novare used Moonlight Slash to sever its hand as the arm withdrew through the partly open door.

Shade and Miss Novare explored the third floor, where a creature with a destructive gaze attacked them. After Shade wounded it with Crystal Light, Miss Novare consumed part of the creature to heal herself and revealed her Bloodkin secret art, asking Shade to keep it confidential.

• Shade and Miss Novare left Room 0397 behind and searched Room 0321, where they found supplies and divided the matches between themselves and the public stock.
• Shade and Miss Novare followed the golden light specks to the locked Room 0300, but a creature marked 0352 appeared and attacked them with its gaze.
• Shade summoned Crystal Light to reflect the creature's gaze, wounding it and revealing a giant tentacled eyeball.
• Miss Novare refused Shade's offer of blood, then used a mouth in her right palm to consume the wounded creature and heal herself.
• Miss Novare told Shade that her ability was a Bloodkin secret art and asked him to keep it confidential.

Shade and Miss Novare explored the tenth floor, activated the hotel elevator, and returned to the Safe Room after Miss Novare revealed the dangerous relic grafted into her arm. The group learned that Shade needed a holy relic to avoid losing his companion, and Miss Coens recalled a shrine on the seventh floor that might contain one.

• Shade and Miss Novare returned the Eye Demon to its numbered room, obtained a key, and used the corpse's key to enter Room 0300, where they discovered an elevator.
• Miss Novare took the elevator to the tenth floor and confessed that her palm-mouth came from a body part of the Leech Queen, an evil relic she had found in the Southern Continent Rift Abyss.
• Shade and Miss Novare agreed to keep working together, with Shade asking her to use the power cautiously and be willing to abandon it.
• Shade and Miss Novare found the Safe Room and told Lady Gerd and Miss Joanna Coens what they had learned about the hotel, its god, their missions, and the elevator.
• Miss Coens concluded that the group needed to find a holy relic for Shade and recalled an unopened shrine cabinet in an empty room on the seventh floor.

Shade and Miss Coens went to the 19th floor to investigate Room 1978 and search for a possible holy relic in Room 1908. After Miss Coens warned him about Lady Gerd and Miss Novare’s ties to evil and revealed her pursuit of the Dream Devouring Demon, they encountered and killed a spider-like monster.

• Miss Coens accompanied Shade to the 19th floor while Miss Novare stayed behind to recover and Lady Gerd remained with her.
• In the elevator, Miss Coens warned Shade that Lady Gerd and Miss Novare were deeply connected to evil, and Shade noticed traces of a Demon on Miss Coens.
• Miss Coens told Shade she had pursued the Dream Devouring Demon, Nagur, after it devoured a village, and Shade suspected it might be connected to her strange state.
• Shade and Miss Coens entered the bloodstained corridor and headed toward Room 1978 and Room 1908.
• A hidden voice offered to guide them and trade its room’s treasures for passage to another floor, but Miss Coens exposed a spider with a woman’s face on the ceiling and cut it in two with Dawn’s First Light.

Shade and Miss Coens searched Room 1978, where they uncovered evidence that its owner was an undead researcher and found a concealed laboratory. They gathered supplies and learned more about the inn’s nineteenth floor, but the room’s owner had not yet returned.

• Shade and Miss Coens entered Room 1978 after killing a Face-Spider, finding a skull mound and an unfamiliar Ritual Matrix.
• Shade reshaped the ritual and determined it created an environment suited to undead beings, while he and Miss Coens found a mystically locked coffin.
• Shade froze the animated human skins with Adele's Time Stop, revealing a hidden trapdoor behind the wardrobe.
• Shade and Miss Coens explored the concealed laboratory, where Shade identified specimens and research into transforming creatures into undead beings.
• Shade and Miss Coens collected matches, materials, and a torch, then used Moon Library to uncover forbidden books and notes about the inn’s nineteenth floor.

Shade and Miss Coens defeated and sealed an immortal undead scholar whose spirit could survive the end of the world. As their time in the inn ran short, Miss Coens offered Shade a Unicorn-horn dagger that might let him break through the House of False Men’s walls.

• Shade and Miss Coens opened the coffin and battled the undead spirit, using a bomb and Exorcism Dust to weaken it.
• Shade destroyed the scholar’s corpse with Corrupt Blood Mist, then bound the spirit with chains bearing nine Great Sin Runes.
• Miss Coens triggered an instant-death curse at the door, but Dream Illusion power protected her, and the pair locked the undead inside the room.
• Shade explained that the scholar had transformed himself into an immortal undead, and he and Miss Coens left the room with ten minutes remaining.
• Miss Coens offered Shade her Unicorn-horn dagger, which might briefly break through the walls of the House of False Men.

Shade and Miss Coens searched the 19th Floor, found a dead Demon Hunter guarding an indescribable being in Room 1908, and returned to the hotel god to exchange their findings. Shade received a blessing that let him return home with the Crystal Shoes and a new task on the 25th Floor, while Miss Coens remained determined to pursue her enemy even at the cost of her life.

• Shade and Miss Coens found Room 1908, where Miss Coens discovered a dead Demon Hunter's journal describing his Life Contract with the room's indescribable occupant.
• Shade and Miss Coens searched the room, collected matches and useful supplies, and Miss Coens kept the Demon Hunting Seal and the hunter's canteen.
• Shade and Miss Coens took the elevator to the 1st Floor, where the god accepted the 19th-floor key and returned the holy emblem as a blessing that let Shade go home by throwing the Crystal Shoes.
• Shade asked to save the key from the 3rd Floor for a future exchange, and the god assigned him to repair the damaged walls between Rooms 2547 and 2548 on the 25th Floor.
• Miss Coens told Shade she would not abandon her pursuit of her enemy, even if she had to sacrifice her life.

Miss Coens gave Shade the Sword Demon Contract, and he returned to the House of False Men after bidding farewell to the Witches. There he discovered that Firstborn Flesh was keeping the door to the Birthing Room of Creation from closing.

• Miss Coens gave Shade the Witch Secret Art Sword Demon Contract and accepted his promise to save her.
• Shade left the third-floor key and supplies with the Witches, who shared advice about Doppelgangers, Unicorns, and containing the House of False Men.
• Shade returned to the present, learned the Lord of Walls task was still unfinished, and found that his Door Pendant had disappeared.
• Shade examined the Flesh-covered door and discovered that the added Flesh was preventing it from closing.
• The Stage Four Imposter explained that the door's Flesh was Firstborn Flesh created by the Twilight Creator.

Shade escaped the House of False Men after injuring its Firstborn Flesh with Miracle Ling Light, then returned home safely. Galina and the Council learned he was back, while the gathered witches confirmed that the Doppelganger investigation had not endangered anyone close to them.

• Shade challenged the Doppelganger’s claim that its kind were the Firstborn Flesh’s honored offspring, then vanished from the core room using the Crystal Shoes and Miracle Ling Light.
• Miracle Ling Light scorched the House of False Men, weakened the Firstborn Flesh, and caused low-ranking Doppelgangers to lose their human forms.
• Shade appeared in his home, where Little Mia and Galina welcomed him after his three-hour disappearance.
• Galina told Shade that Luvia’s divination had predicted his return between 7:10 and 7:20, and she had waited at home for him.
• Tifa told the Council that the confirmed Doppelganger list implicated no one closely connected to them, easing the witches’ fears.

After escaping the House of False Men, Shade reunited with his friends and told them about the relic’s core and the Firstborn Flesh. Luvia insisted he stay off Fatumonst Island until they found a way to protect him from being transferred into the relic again.

• Adele Isabella left the Council after Tifa confirmed that Shade was safe and the others had been accounted for.
• Luvia, Dorothy, Emilia, Sylvia, and Megan returned to Saint Derain Square, where Shade recounted reaching the House of False Men’s core and seeing the Door of the Birthing Room of Creation.
• Shade explained that Firstborn Flesh clung to the door and prevented it from closing, and he proposed seeking the Lady of the Lake’s help and borrowing the Unicorns’ strength.
• Luvia warned Shade that the relic and Weeper of Blood Hermons could target him again, and she asked him to avoid Fatumonst Island until Grace and Helen could advise him on safeguards.
• Shade promised to stay away from the island the next day, then accompanied Emilia to Saint Byron’s and greeted Grandma Qishala and Professor Danist.

Shade helped Daniste and Emilia arrange for the Moon Stream Elves to investigate Fatumonst Island, then visited the Doctor to discuss their plans and the Dream Devouring Demon—Nagur. The Doctor explained that Nagur was hiding inside Miss Coens’s dream and that she was unknowingly sleepwalking.

• Daniste asked Shade to help the Moon Stream Elves investigate whether Fatumonst Island was suitable for the Coronation Ceremony, and Shade suggested going after the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival.
• After Emilia and Daniste left, Shade told Daniste about his recent encounter with the House of False Men and gave her three Evil God Holy Emblems to dispose of.
• Shade spent the night with Sylvia, Megan, and Audrey, then set out with Little Mia the next morning to visit the Doctor.
• The Doctor told Shade that he planned to travel to Fatumonst Island over the weekend after two more church examinations.
• Shade described Miss Coens and the demonic power he had sensed in her, and the Doctor identified Nagur as the Dream Devouring Demon hiding within her dream.
• The Doctor explained that Nagur had trapped Miss Coens in a long dream, making her unknowingly sleepwalk and unable to recognize that she was dreaming.

Shade sought a way to exorcise and restrain the demon haunting Miss Coens, then visited Mr. Ptolemy Albert to learn how to track Doppelgangers. Mr. Albert gave him a new divination technique and explained that Wild Bloodkin clans worshiped the Twilight Creator and pursued flesh evolution.

• Shade asked the Doctor how to drive the demon from Miss Coens without waking her, and the Doctor promised to devise an exorcism and restraint plan before Shade traveled next week.
• Shade visited the morgue in Moon Bay and learned that corpse thieves had recently targeted hospitals and morgues.
• Mr. Ptolemy Albert told Shade that he had developed Viscera Tracing, a Thaumaturgy that used a corpse's organs or flesh to locate blood relatives, and gave him its instructions to test on Doppelgangers.
• Shade discussed the House of False Men and Firstborn Flesh with Mr. Albert, who explained that some Bloodkin clans worshiped the Twilight Creator and were known as Wild Bloodkin.

Shade learned from Mr. Albert that Firstborn Flesh could be suppressed by a Snake Fang tied to Destiny, then sought the Goddess in the Lake for guidance. She told him how to obtain one during the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival, and Shade found the Special Coin he had been seeking at Huntington’s black market.

• Mr. Albert explained the dangers and origins of Firstborn Flesh, but said he could not help Shade approach the House of False Men.
• Shade visited Bella in Moon Bay, and she asked whether he had recently met the Speaker.
• Shade and Little Mia went to Lake Heart Island, where the Goddess in the Lake said a Snake Fang could suppress Firstborn Flesh’s power.
• The Goddess in the Lake told Shade to sacrifice suitable items at Shadow of Herm during the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival to obtain a Snake Fang.
• Shade visited Huntington’s Local Black Market and received the Special Coin he had commissioned.

Shade received the Red Butterfly Twins’ curse, which would protect him from forced spatial displacement by the House of False Men, while Luvia learned how to obtain Snake Fang during the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival. As the festival began on Fatumonst Island, all Four Elements grew active, and Shade prepared to investigate its mysteries.

• Shade visited Grace and Helen in Middlesburg, watched them bless newborn twins, and practiced summoning his Night Watchman with the Sword Demon Contract.
• Grace and Helen cursed Shade with the Red Butterfly Twins’ power, causing him to turn into blood-red butterflies if forcibly displaced and preventing the House of False Men from abducting him.
• Luvia refused Shade’s invitation to explore Fatumonst Island, planning instead to search for the Pilgrims of Fate during the festival’s heightened supernatural activity.
• Luvia used a Dragon Blood Treasure Coin to learn that Shade could obtain Snake Fang by finding a fang-shaped stone at the dockside bonfire, staining it with a candidate’s blood, and completing a ritual at the Shadow of Herm.
• Shade sensed the Four Elements becoming active beneath Sylvia’s High Tower, and Sylvia confirmed that their activity would intensify throughout the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival.

Shade visited Kael-Todd Town as it prepared for the Ten Thousand Spirits Festival, met with the Fatu elders and Moon Creek elves, and learned more about Snake Fang weapons. He reunited with Matilda and redirected the maids’ search toward Doppelgangers while the Blood Spirit School’s alliance with the House of False Men became public.

• Shade visited Sylvia at the Teleportation Gate, agreed to dance with her at the Bonfire Party, and delivered Grandma Cassandra’s clothes to the castle.
• Shade saw Kael-Todd Town decked out for the festival and met Elder Harald, Elder Vilda, and Moon Creek elves discussing a possible Coronation Ceremony on Fatumonst Island.
• Elder Harald revealed that elven Water of Life had nearly healed his injuries, and he explained how Snake Fang techniques could be used to make bullets that temporarily hindered spellcasting.
• Shade admitted to Elder Harald that he was the God Summoner and asked about Snake Fang weapons; Harald offered to arrange custom-made bullets.
• Shade reunited with Matilda and gave the maids Viscera Tracing Thaumaturgy, asking them to search for Doppelgangers in the Delarion Delegation.
• Shade’s revelations about the Blood Spirit School’s cooperation with the House of False Men spread, ruining the school’s reputation.

Shade and the Moon Bay maids used Viscera Tracing on captured Doppelgangers to locate others in the City of Time Wheels. Their eighth subject caused two diviners to glimpse the House of False Men, suggesting they had found a Doppelganger connected directly to it.

• Claire welcomed Shade back and made him promise to stay for the Bonfire Party.
• Shade and the maids captured Miss Lavend and used Viscera Tracing to find more Doppelgangers.
• Shade and Matilda repeatedly brought back ordinary residents who had been replaced, while the maids divined from their flesh.
• After seven Doppelgangers had been burned, Matilda and Miss Pensite suffered injuries while tracing the eighth and saw bloodlight linked to the House of False Men.
• Shade treated the diviners, and Matilda asked whether they had found the House of False Men’s blood source.